Who decides what "obligations" people have? Not this author.

Agree unreservedly!

Peter – you say that “solving these problems is a dream”. Based on what you have written in this article, it will remain just that, a dream.

Unless you go back and sort out the most basic first principles, you won’t go anywhere with this.

For example, was this world/universe that we live in deliberately created for some particular purpose or did it just unintentionally happen to come into existence by some means such as the big bang?

If you believe the latter to be true, then it is all over for you. If the world is not supposed to be in one particular state rather than another, then any basis for saying that something is right or wrong is gone. That also goes for any claims that we have any obligations or responsibilities to anyone or anything.

Of course you, or anyone else, can make up anything you like about morality and responsibility and shout and write books, but it will mean absolutely nothing. You might as well save your breath.

I am the author... ,The comment ", was this world/universe that we live in deliberately created for some particular purpose or did it just unintentionally happen to come into existence by some means such as the big bang?

If you believe the latter to be true, then it is all over for you. "

This accusation contravenes the beliefs of most scientists in this world, The Big Bang is how it happened, Charles Darwin explains us... God did not create the world,
If you believe he did, he made an almighty mess of it, Read the newspapers

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:...
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,"
[Ecclesiastes 3:1,7]

This one of the wisest philosophers of all times, deserves a prominent place in your book, Peter.

Peter – Thank-you for responding. I am simply seeking to take up your invitation in the first paragraph of your article to make comments and suggestions on your underlying theses. In my first comment I was not making an “accusation” but just seeking to make a logical point.

Helpfully, you have now made it quite clear that you accept the big bang thesis as the explanation for the origin of the universe.

My point is that, if the big bang is a correct explanation for our origin then everything has come into being unintentionally. No intelligent being planned for the big bang to occur, leading to the existence of the universe, it just somehow happened by itself, and all to no particular end.

I take it that you would agree with that?

If so, if the world is not supposed to be in one state rather than another, then how can we meaningfully say that something can ever be morally wrong? Some might argue that it would be morally wrong to kill all the whales, or to kill all the white people, but if there was never any intention for the world to contain whales or white people (or anything else), then why should it be “wrong” to eliminate all the whales and white people?

Of course you, and anyone else, can decide that you like whales and so you can make up a “moral rule” that killing all the whales, etc, is wrong.

But so what?

Why should anyone care what moral rules you make up? And if some other believer in the big bang makes up a “moral rule” that conflicts with yours, how can it be determined which rule should prevail? After all, neither side can claim that their moral rule reflects the way things “ought” to be, as there are no “oughts” in a universe that just happened into being for no purpose.

You just seem to be left with personal preferences rather than any binding rules.